It’s retained much of its original features
Cllr Tony Brennan, Knowsley’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development(Image: Knowsley Council)
It’s now been 113 years since one “iconic” cinema first opened its doors in Merseyside – and now life at the Grade II site has come full circle, with it being transformed back to its former glory. One of the most historic buildings in the town, the former Prescot Picture Palace on Kemble Street, Prescot, has welcomed generations through the decades.
Opening back in 1912, the building has had many incarnations in the last century. Many from the area will know more recently it was a community church from the 1990s.
But the “rare and iconic” cinema and music hall has since undergone an extraordinary transformation 67 years after the theatre closed its doors. The former Picture Palace is now the 26th historic building in Prescot town centre to benefit from restoration work as part of Knowsley Council’s wider regeneration programme for the town.
The plans were announced back in 2020 and the ECHO at the time traced the building’s history. Now, the new entrances have been tiled with olde English tiles and the new stain glass window mirrors the original Picture Palace stained glass and was developed using historic photographs.
Cllr Tony Brennan, Knowsley’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, recently said the “architectural heritage and cultural history of the iconic building is incomparable.” Here, we take another brief look back at its fascinating history.
Early 1900s: Prescot’s first cinema
Staff stood outside the original box office window of the Prescot Picture House, possibly taken around 1912(Image: Knowsley ARK)
Located on Kemble Street, the building is part of what was a longer terrace of mainly three storey houses, with an auditorium built in the rear gardens. In 1912, the cinema opened as the Prescot Picture Palace and Theatre of Varieties and was built by Mr L Hughes, who appears to have been the landlord of several commercial buildings around Prescot town centre.
The Prescot Picture Palace was the first town’s cinema and many of the adverts in the programmes were for properties that Mr Hughes had available for rent at the time. The auditorium remains to a large extent as built with a sloping floor, 150 original seats in situ and a lot of the original plasterwork, which includes the decorative proscenium arch that framed the screen.
Originally a cinema and variety theatre, the theatrical use stopped within a few years and in 1929 the cinema was upgraded to be able to show ‘talkies’ – films with sound – as well as newscasts.
1950s: A carpet and furniture warehouse
Undated aerial view of Prescot, showing the Lyme House Cinema on Eccleston Street(Image: Knowsley ARK)
Many residents will know and even remember that Prescot also had another cinema, the Lyme House Cinema on Eccleston Street. Later becoming the Halifax Bank, it opened in 1922 and was also built by Mr Hughes.
Local tradition has it that the Lyme House was the town’s premier cinema, whilst the older Picture Palace was the second string cinema. The Picture Palace closed in 1957 and became a carpet and furniture warehouse, with The Lyme House closing its doors three years later in 1960.
1970s: A bingo hall
The building circa 1984 when it was Coral Bingo(Image: Knowsley ARK)
In the 1970s, the Picture Palace was sold to Tudor Bingo and later became Coral Bingo and finally Gala Bingo by the early 1990s. The photo, courtesy of Knowsley ARK, is from around 1984 when the building was Coral Bingo. It was taken from the stage, looking up across the auditorium.
To make it a bingo hall and social club, Coral Bingo made changes to the interior of the building, including removing the wings of the balcony in the auditorium, though the back part of the balcony remains. In the 1990s, the original cinema seats that were removed were found in a sealed part of the building and returned to their original locations.
1990s: Prescot Community Church
Colin Hill, senior minister, inside Prescot Community Church in 2015
In around 1995, Gala Bingo sold the Kemble Street premises to what is now Prescot Community Church. The Church carried out many repairs and restoration works inside and outside, including reconfiguring the entrance from Kemble Street, repairing the ornate ceiling and restoring the windows with new stained glass.
Back in 2015, the ECHO was given a look inside the impressive building by Colin Hill, the church’s senior minister. Stunning photos show the rows of distinctive cinema chairs in the main auditorium, which are more than a century old and have been restored, as well as an original an original programme from 1915 found under the floorboards.
The future
Outside the Prescot Picture Palace today(Image: Knowsley Council)
Back in 2020, the ECHO reported how Prescot was selected as one of the 68 high streets to benefit from the High Streets Heritage Action Zone scheme. The £3.1m heritage-led regeneration programme has seen major investment from Knowsley Council and Historic England into a number of projects in Prescot town centre.
Cllr Tony Brennan, Knowsley’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, recently said: “The restoration of the former Prescot Picture Palace building is the single biggest project the council has undertaken as part of our successful High Street Heritage Action Zone project here in Prescot. The architectural heritage and cultural history of this iconic building is incomparable, and I am delighted that we have been able to safeguard this building and its heritage for many more years to come.”
Knowsley Council is now working to secure future investment for the former Picture Palace building to bring the space into use and to support the continued regeneration and transformation of Prescot town centre. The local authority have confirmed the windows will now be boarded to protect them from any damage whilst the building is unoccupied.